Internet

User reviews are often a good way to get a feel for what your peers think of a movie, game, or TV show, but usually there isn't any kind of vetting process associated with them. How can you tell that the person leaving an exceedingly low (or exceeding high) rating on a movie actually saw it? Rotten Tomatoes asked the same question, and today, it's introducing verified audience reviews and ratings.

Google Search is getting a makeover, with results set to add recognizable brands and more in order to make finding your answer even quicker. The update will be showing up in mobile results first, Google says, though it coincidentally arrives in the midst of an indexing glitch that has left the search giant ignoring new content.

Starting next month, Google will require advertisers to certify whether they provide abortions before they can run advertisements related to the medical procedure. The new Google Ads policy targets misleading advertisements directing women in need of an abortion to anti-abortion groups. Advertisers that don't actually provide abortions will have their advertisements listed with a disclosure revealing this fact to viewers.

In the midst of the storm that blasted Facebook over the past two years, Instagram remained mostly unshaken and a shining beacon in the company's portfolio. Yes, it had its fair share of lapses, but those seemed to pale in comparison to Facebook's faults. Now, however, it seems that Instagram's past may be coming back to haunt it, as a still unresolved mystery may cause its most popular and most profitable users to lose trust in the social network.

We hear lots of stories of people getting hacked or getting duped into giving out personal information but despite their growing regularity, few take action to protect their online identities. Many presume it's not going to happen to them until it does. Some consider the setup a hassle while others find entering a PIN code in addition to a password too inconvenient. Google's latest study, however, reveals that even just adding your phone number as a recovery method for your Google Account is enough to block majority of hacking and phishing attempts.

A common misconception: "Internet security isn’t important, I’ve got nothing to hide anyway." Your conversations may be trivial for now, but you never know when you and your friends or colleagues discuss matters that could be of value to someone else who shouldn’t be eavesdropping.

Instead of television channels, many kids today stream their video content on YouTube or Netflix. Being able to select the specific episode and show you want gives parents and children more flexibility. But there’s a dark side to this convenience – the proximity of explicit content.

Facebook is planning yet another News Feed tweak, this one targeting content in general rather than just the video changes announced days ago. The social network is about to make things a bit more personal with an adjustment to the content users see in their respective feeds; priority will be given to posts from people who (probably) matter most to you.

There are already plenty of people who make a good living playing Fortnite day in and day out, but you don't need to be a big-time streamer to earn some cash paying the game. One website is offering one person $1000 to play Fortnite for 50 hours this summer. There are some perks and requirements beyond simply spending 50 hours playing Fortnite, but still, you're getting paid to play video games (assuming you can land the gig).

Social media has significantly changed the way we communicate and consume content. Sometimes we even get our news from Facebook and Twitter before actual news sites. Unfortunately, it has also allowed not just misinformation to creep in but, worse, harmful content. After receiving a lot of flak for what is perceived to be complacency, Facebook is tightening the noose on users of its Live streaming platform to prevent it from being misused in such manner again.

Twitter has launched a new tool that helps protect its users from anti-vaccination misinformation, the company has announced. The tool targets certain keywords that may expose users to anti-vax materials, including 'vaccine,' and it works by directing the user to the government website Vaccines.gov. The tool was launched in partnership with the US Department of Health & Human Services.

Facebook announced an upcoming change to its video ranking on Monday, stating that it will boost its prioritization of original content to help creators grow their audiences, among other things. The changes will roll out over 'coming months,' according to the company, and they'll revolve around three factors that Facebook says have an impact on how a video ranks.